The market for alternative sweeteners has started blossoming into quite the selection - no longer are consumers tied down to shopping at obscure health food stores or sending away bulk orders to specialty shops to find alternative ingredients, now super markets and even corner stores are following the trend which is shifting toward using natural whole ingredients.

While our quest for natural ingredients may have started as a trend, it may --- as a result of decades of digesting over processed, convenience type foods that saturate the market and whose establishments flood food courts and tend to cluster urban sprawl --- be a necessity to help reverse the ill-effects we have brought on ourselves through poor food choices.

There are many reasons to want an alternative sweetener, some include lifestyle choices - from Vegans who want to avoid bleached all-purpose sugar that may be processed using animal bones, to Raw Foodists who believe that all food they consume should be in the closest state to nature as possible (i.e minimally processed through heating), to those who are required to follow restricted diets such as those who suffer from Celiac Disease, or those who are diabeticsW. There is a great pdf document that you can download that touches on both Celiac Disease and Diabetes - outlining the connection between the two diseases and foods you consume.

In this post I want to concentrate on sweeteners that are suitable for diabetics. Those sweeteners that are low-glycemic. I will show some examples of each category of low glycemic sweeteners: unrefined, sugar alcohol, artificial, and herbal sweeteners.

There are many choices for alternative sweeteners. Natural, unrefined low-glycemic alternatives include:

Brown Rice SyrupW, which comes in different grades and gluten-free versions. It is normally used in cooking or baking ,by substituting a ratio of 1 1/4 times BRS to 1 amount of honey, molasses, or all-purpose (refined) sugar called for in a recipe [if using BRS to substitute for AP sugar - reduce liquids in your recipe by 1/4 cup for every cup of BRS used]. The main component of BRS is maltose and several complex carbohydrates - which are absorbed very slowly by our bodies, making it a good low glycemic W choice.

Agave NectarW or Agave Syrup, is produced commercially in Mexico. Juice is expressed from the core of the agave, called the piña.[1] The juice is filtered, then heated, to hydrolyze carbohydrates into sugars. Sources I have read say: "It is not manufactured from starch, but rather from fructans. [6] Due to its fructose content and the fact that the glycemic index only measures glucose levels, agave syrup is notable in that its glycemic index and glycemic load are lower than many other natural sweeteners on the market. [5] When using Agave, substitute 25% less for sweeteners called for in a recipe (ratio of 3/4 Agave to 1 cup refined sugar or other sweeteners), you will need to reduce your liquids by as much as 1/3. If using for baking make sure to reduce your oven temp by 25 F°.

There are many more sugar alcohol alternatives. Most are great because they actually prevent tooth decay, and they can be used in producing hard candies and confections. (seen allot in dental offices) The downside to these sweeteners is after a certain amount is eaten - it produces a laxative effect.

Another option and maybe the most well known category of low-glycemic sweeteners are those that are artificial. These artificial sweeteners have been largely used in commercialized products.

SplendaW , a.k.a Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar),[4] twice as sweet as saccharin, and four times as sweet as aspartame and can be found in 4,500 products. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions and can be used in baking or in products that require a longer shelf life.

AspartameW This sweetener is marketed under a number of trademark names, including Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, and is an ingredient of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide. It is commonly used in diet soft drinks, and is provided as a table condiment in some countries. However, aspartame is not always suitable for baking because it often breaks down when heated and loses much of its sweetness.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding artificial sweeteners. and the safety of longterm ingesting. For those who cannot have sugar otherwise, these artificial sweeteners bring hope. Artificial sweeteners tend to have an unwanted aftertaste after ingested, and like Sugar Alcohol based sweeteners , they too have a laxative effect if eaten in large quantities.

The last category of low-glycemic sweeteners are herbal based. These sweeteners generally come from the parts of different herb families:

SteviaW The species Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or simply stevia, is widely grown for its sweet leaves. As a sugar substitute, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar. With its extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives.

People have told me there is a learning curve with Stevia - you have to acclimate your tastebuds to the actual taste of stevia - it is sweet, but the ratio needs to be just right or you find a bitter after taste.

Recently the Food and Drug Administration (a.k.a FDA) approved 2 Stevia derived sweeteners, a first for the United States. One of the approved sweeteners Truvia, was developed by Cargil and The Coca-cola company.

Beverage brands such as Odwalla and Sprite's New "Green" line of sodas, all are planning to feature Truvia as the main sweetener in their products geared toward eco-friendly and diet soda buying consumers.

I got a chance to try Truvia. I was pretty interested because of what people had told me about Stevia, and that made it a challenge, plus the approval of this sweetener is pretty huge in the world of herbal ingredients.

Truvia comes in packets, much like Sweet 'n' Low, or regular table sugar you find at restaurants. Each packet is equal to 2 teaspoons of regular all purpose sugar. Truvia is also a Certified Kosher ingredient.

In the realm of eco-friendliness - The box and packets themselves are all recyclable paper and printed with Soy ink (big bonus there).

I tasted a few grains of Truvia by themselves, and noticed a very light vanilla note, and hints of tapioca. The aroma of Truvia is also similair to tapiocca custard. The look and texture is similair to fine sugar used in professional bakeries. I got a slight tingling, almost effervescence like sensation on my tongue once I tasted the Truvia grains.

Truvia did not pass my "coffee" test. I added it to my normal brewed coffee w/ half 'n' half and got a definite bitter aftertaste, similair to that of Dandelion greens. I would say that the ratio of one packet may be adjusted according to personal taste - I would use much less.

But maybe I need to acclimate my taste buds slowly to get used to the taste of Truvia in my coffee? I consider my morning coffee a sacred practice and I think I am not yet ready to change it. My favorite alternative to sugar in coffee is Agave Nectar - this stuff is great, I prefer the light colored agave syrup, as this has the least amount of flavor profile between Light Agave syrup and Amber Agave syrup varieties. If you taste the light agave syrup on your finger, it is very similair to normal sugar in taste.

Truvia preformed well however in my baking tests. I looked through the recipes found on the Truvia website. Some of the recipes include:

I decided to try the Classic Cheesecake recipe. It was not that bad, the taste was not as different as I had expected - texture was slightly affected, not as firm as traditional cheesecake formulas, but overall if you were looking to cut out refined sugar and calories this version might be a good bet. This cheesecake recipe has 270 calories and 4 grams of sugar per serving as compared to regular cheesecake that has 310 calories and 20 grams of sugar per serving.

Overall I would say that Truvia is pretty pleasant to the palate when used in baking and is great when trying to use a natural low glycemic sugar substitute, similair to sugar in quality. The ratio of Truvia to sugar might need to be adjusted when substituting in recipes - but you can use a combination Truvia with Agave Syrup to cut the aftertaste of stevia, as they both are low-glycemic sweeteners.

I am Amber, Owner and Editor of Renaissance Culinaire. Culinary schooled (twice). I have been blogging since 2004, on food, parenting and geek related topics. I am a seasoned product reviewer. I love music and all things geek.

Aspartame is a methyl ester of a dipeptide used as a synthetic nonnutritive sweetener in over 90 countries worldwide in over 6000 products. The purpose of this investigation was to review the scientific literature on the absorption and metabolism, the current consumption levels worldwide, the toxicology, and recent epidemiological studies on aspartame. Current use levels of aspartame, even by high users in special subgroups, remains well below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority established acceptable daily intake levels of 50 and 40 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. Consumption of large doses of aspartame in a single bolus dose will have an effect on some biochemical parameters, including plasma amino acid levels and brain neurotransmitter levels. The rise in plasma levels of phenylalanine and aspartic acid following administration of aspartame at doses less than or equal to 50 mg/kg bw do not exceed those observed postprandially. Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. Critical review of all carcinogenicity studies conducted on aspartame found no credible evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic. The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior. Epidemiological studies on aspartame include several case-control studies and one well-conducted prospective epidemiological study with a large cohort, in which the consumption of aspartame was measured. ****The studies provide no evidence to support an association between aspartame and cancer in any tissue. The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.****

Wow! Really interesting info. For quite a while I was trying to find a sweetener that would be "sugar in taste" and finally gave up and still use sugar. Truvia sound as an ideal option for me as vanilla flavour won'e bother me at all and it's environmental soya ink... I love it! Thanks.

"Researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the University of San Paolo in Brazil have discovered that some sweeteners, such as date sugar and less refined dark brown sugars, may help manage type 2 diabetes and related complications. According to a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, the researchers discovered that many such sweeteners are rich in antioxidants that may help control diabetes-related high blood pressure and heart disease. Several even may inhibit the action of alpha-glucosidase, an important enzyme related to type 2 diabetes."

This goes right along with my post. The ability to have a natural sweetener with heart & BP preventative side effects is a great bonus.

@Cheap Posters: Thanks for copying the info from that study. It gives more balance to this discussion.

@Wenningstedt auf Sylt: I tend to agree. There have been allot of problems associated with synthetic foods. You should be choosy - it is your body & it is a choice to be educated & weary of what goes into it.

@Michael Eliades: You are welcome. I know how overwhelming it can be learning you are diabetic - during my 2nd pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I had to monitor my blood sugar with a meter and watch my sugar and carb intake. Luckily once I had my baby, my blood sugar levels came back to normal.

There is a lot of information on the web devoted to the diet for diabetics - do a google search for "low-glycemic", the worst things for blood sugar tend to be "bleached flours", white rices etc.Try to use more whole grain flours or search for alternatives to wheat flour - just make sure to ask a Registered Dietitian if what info you found is indeed the best fit for your partner.

I am glad you found this post helpful. As a former chef you may find it allot easier to substitute ingredients and re-work recipes than a home cook.

I love the way they come out with something special and then they also give you ideas of how to use these syrups! Lovely....look at this for example, Crunchy Apple Cinnamon & Pear Salad..what a tasty idea!

To our bodies, a sugar is a sugar. The only exception to this are the "sugar alcohols" like xylitol or sorbitol, which, though naturally-occurring (and in fact we create xylitol in our carbohydrate metabolism), are different kinds of sugars, five-carbon instead of 6, and are absorbed much more slowly than are the other, more well-known sugars. They are sugars, and therefore they do have calories, but not as many as the other sugars because we eliminate them before they are completely absorbed.

Yes it very necessary to have a natural sweetener. Nowadays there are many sweeteners available in the market. The important thing is too choose a good and naturally sweet tasting sweetener. Many thanks to you for providing such an important information.

Yes very interseting it is...i have gone trough numerous of recipies but this one seems to be really a different one.It is very kind of you that you osted so many different posts and made your knowledge available for every one.

i'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, to me nothing beats the sugar that i grew up using... but don't get me wrong, it's a great thing that these alternatives are much more 'available' to people who are diabetics and people who prefer using them..

I've recently started using Splenda as an alternative sweetener, but it has a slightly different flavor from normal sugar. I was introduced to it by volunteering with an emergency services agency providing meals for the homeless. Dietary balance is extremely important and we try to keep the meal as healthy as possible.

This is very good information and I may experiment a bit to find a sweetener that fits my tastes.

Thanks for the small write up on the Agave which I'm starting to see much more often here in San Diego. Baking with it seems like it may be a bit of a challenge moving forward because of the changes in recipes.....especially because I'm not Julia Child!

I have heard about sweeteners before but I really don't like any sweets. I mean whatever sweets I take comes from chocolates or cakes so I don't have any option and otherwise for my tea needs, I don't use sugar with it. I try to take less sugar but would prefer honey over any other artificial sweetener.

Most articles I read talk about Splenda being the leader in artificial sweetener category, however I have also been directed to articles that indicate that the long term effect of splenda is not positive and that long term users have come across issues...such as memory loss as an example.

Diabetes is a very common disease among peoples. Thanks to the modern science that we have now got several alternative sweetener products. You have shown a variety of sweetening products, I can choose one that is comfortable for me.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.

I think, Stevia is a good substitute for sugar, one of my best friend just being diagnose with diabetic and he is sick worried about his diet now, so I stumble across this article while searching for an alternative and now I am much relieved to find such a good alternative of sugar for him. Cheers.

I LOVE sugar, and for healthreasons i can not eat sugar anymore. First , i would like to say that all the substitudes, do not taste like ' the real thing ' sencond : they give you diarea.I live in Belgium, and in America, the supermarkets are filled with good sugarfree produkts. Here in belgium there are almost no sugarfree produkts

What about honey!?!?! Honey is certainly not as low on the glycemic index as some of the other sweeteners you mentioned but it is certainly more natural, and more easily digested than some of them. Not to mention honey is a GREAT sugar substitute for baking! Here is a site that has some great tips for baking with honey and some free honey recipes. www.besthoneysite.com

Some chefs are already starting to make candy bars with stevia instead of sugar. It will only be a short time before major companies like Mars will be using sugar free options in their candies! yum or gross?

Truvia is supposed to be a good one but I also agree that not all sweeteners are good for diabetics. The problem is that you start giving these sweeteners to diabetics saying that normal sugar is harmful and when you discover that these artificial sweetener could be harmful too, what do you say to the patient in your house and what alternative do you have for them now?

Interesting post, although it would have been good to hear what you personally think of artificial sweeteners compared to more natural ones. Personally, once I heard that there were natural alternatives, I started to encourage all my friends to use those, as the man-made stuff is full of stuff that isn't good for your body.

There are some interesting points in time in this article but I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as well

Actually even being petite a person can still have diabetes or a high glycemic rate if they have genetic predisposition. By using those kind of low glycemic sweeteners those individuals can not only avoid diabetes but they will decrease the amount of any extra calories they may ingest, thus decreasing the risk of being obese.

I already knew aspartame, but that Agave Nectar really seems promising. I'll try it out if I find where to buy it!

From my personal point of view, I try not to use any sugar or sugar substitutes at all. I would say, except baking , I only use honey, maple syrup or agave nectar. Growing up at beekeepers family, I am kind of addicted to honey. I think it is healthiest from all sugars you can get. It contains mainly fructose and glucose . It has lot of vitamins and antioxidants . It doesn't get any more natural than that.Have a sweet day :)

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